Indiana council nixes prayer box at City Hall

December 26, 2008

RENSSELAER, Ind. (AP) -- Pastors say they'll keep sending prayers up even though their request for a prayer box in City Hall has been turned down. A group of pastors asked to place a box in the City Hall's reception area where people could leave anonymous notes with requests for prayers. The Rev. Garry Wickert said similar boxes are at businesses around the city and are collected every week or so and shared with local churches. City Council members, all Republicans, said they liked the idea, but voted against the request this week because of concerns over possible lawsuits. "Community standards say this would be a great thing," Councilman George Cover said. "But there is always that one or two in the community that really don't care about the standards." Mayor Herbert Arihood was also worried about being taken to court. "Personally, we would have approved this in a heartbeat," he said. "But we have to honor the law." In the 1990s, a lawsuit stopped a long-standing tradition of distributing Bibles to fifth-graders at public schools in the 5,000-person city about 40 miles north of Lafayette. A resident sued the school district on behalf of his 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. A federal judge sided with the district in 1991 but that decision was overturned by an appeals court two years later. Wickert said the council's decision would not stop churches from gathering prayer requests. "We are going to continue praying," he said. "And we encourage you to let us know if there are prayers for the city or individuals you'd want us to pray for and we would be very happy to do that."